August 10, 2000
KAGAWA, JAPAN-The current OPBF super-welter champ Seiji Takechi, 24, committed a suicide by hanging near the Kompira Shrine at the night of August 10. It was a place where Takechi was usually jogging and training in the morning.
The WBC #17 ranked 154-pounder Takechi, 10-3-2, 2 KOs, was a game and durable southpaw fighter. Takechi had an ambitious crack at the then world-ranked OPBF champ Kookyul Song, Korea, in Sakaide last July. It ended in a fiasco, as Takechi, then leading on points, suffered a gash at the end of the 10th round, when the Korean judge once declared a TKO for his compatriot Song, but the verdict was reversed to Takechifs victory by a technical decision. It became a furious controversy between the Japanese and Korean commissions, and the OPBF wisely rendered a solution that it temporarily recognized Takechi as interim champ and ordered a rematch between the champ Song and the interim boss Takechi.
The OPBF unification bout unfortunately and disappointingly resulted in a third round technical draw there last November, as Takechi dropped Song in the opening session but sustained such a nasty gash to go on. Song fought a voluntary defense against Nobuhiro Ishida, an unbeaten ex-amateur prospect, and lost his OPBF belt by an 12th round technical decision this February. The OPBF again ordered an OPBF unification bout between Ishida and Takechi with the latter winning a close but unanimous verdict last May.
Takechi was slated to engage in a non-title bout with a Thailander named Sakkedao Kietphutorn in Sakaide on October 14-with this reporter as the matchmaker. We cannot understand why the youngster abruptly suicided by hanging at the peak of his career. Champ, sleep in peacec..
(8-10-01)